NEED TO GARDEN!

It was a really frosty start to the day


even the Hellabores were hanging their heads.

As usual a frosty start resulted in a bright, sunny morning. As soon as I see the sun I want to do some gardening but there's not much I can do outside at the moment. I do feel envious of those with allotments or spare pieces of garden that they can do some work on...even if it's just a bit of digging! As it has been a milder winter than usual the Osteospurnum cuttings that I took last Autumn had started to get a bit leggy. Normally they would sit in there small pots and not put any growth n during the winter. Of course where they have continued to grow but the pots are small they have compensated for not being able to spread their roots by shooting upwards. So, earlier than usual., I decided to pot them up into a pot one size larger and also pinch their tips out. A word of warning; if you do something like this when the weather is cold be sure not to overwater them and to keep the pot protected. The little root ball is being plunged into an expanse of cold, wet compost and could rot if they don't start growing immediately.

In the same tray as the Osteos was one of my "freebies" I found last Autumn; it is a Tumbling Ted (Saponaria) seedling. Although it looks a little tatty at the moment it has grown really well and will be ready to put into the garden later in the Spring and will

look lovely when it's covered in little pink flowers.

The flower bud on my "forgotten" Amaryllis is starting to open now. I'm so glad I remembered it in the end or I would have missed it!

When I drew the curtains the other night I accidentally snapped off a piece of Jade plant. I'm getting very short of compost and as I don't know when I'll be able to get any more I'm being a bit "precious" with it. I decided to just pop this piece in some pure vermiculite. Being a succulent that will be good enough for it to root into until I can pot it properly. I put a used tea bag in the bottom of the pot, it helps to stop the vermiculite falling through the holes and certainly does the plant no harm. The foil round the bottom of the pot is purely so that the windowsill doesn't get marked while I go and find something to stand the pot on. I always run out of small pot saucers but find that the lids of coffee jars and the suchlike come in handy!

Well I'm glad I found a little bit of gardening to do....even if it was indoors in the kitchen!